Analog and digital haptic-tactile signals can be generated in various different ways. An electro-mechanical sensor, such as a vibro-tactile sensor, a pressure sensor, or other pressure, vibration, or motion sensor, is one mechanism for generating a haptic-tactile signal. A haptic-tactile signal can also be generated synthetically using an authoring tool. An electro-mechanical actuator, from a 1-Degree of Freedom (DOF) (linear motion) to a 4-DOF actuator, may be used to playback a haptic-tactile signal. For example, a vibration or inertial sensor mounted on the seat of a professional race car driver or a sensor affixed to the boundary of a professional ice hockey rink may generate haptic-tactile signals that are delivered to an actuator mounted in a chair in a spectator's living room. The signals may be delivered to the actuator in conjunction with a live television broadcast of the race or hockey game. For example, the haptic-tactile signals might cause the actuator to vibrate the spectator's chair during the race or when players collide with the ice hockey rink boundary or in sync with vibration from an inertial sensor (or accelerometer) proximal to a race-car driver car seat. As another example, haptic-tactile signals can be collected from boxing gloves or Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags affixed to football players and delivered to the home or a portable device. Other applications of haptic-tactile signals exist in robotics, telepresence, medical, and military fields.
One technical challenge involving haptic-tactile signals is encoding such signals in a way that allows efficient delivery of the signals through production to emission and from emission to consumer.
The approaches described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section.